Meeting rooms on Desana come in two flavors, and knowing which one you are booking tells you whether your room is confirmed right away or needs a yes from the workspace first.
Instant book rooms
An instant book room works just like booking a hot desk: if the room is available at your chosen time, your booking is confirmed immediately. The workspace does not need to review or approve it.
You can spot an instant book room by the booking button. The form invites you to Book the room, and the final button reads Accept and book.
Because there is no review step, instant book rooms are ideal for short-notice plans. As long as you are within the room's booking lead time, you can often book for the same day.
Request rooms
A request room sends your booking to the workspace, and their team accepts or rejects it based on availability and their own scheduling. The form invites you to Request the room, and the final button reads Accept and request booking.
While your request is with the workspace:
Your booking shows as With operator for approval in your Bookings list.
You can withdraw the request at any point before it is accepted, with a full refund.
Once the workspace accepts, your booking is confirmed and the room's normal cancellation policy applies.
If the workspace rejects your request, you will always see the reason, and you will not be charged.
What about my organization's approval?
Some organizations require an internal approver to sign off on meeting room bookings. This is a separate step that can apply to both instant book and request rooms, so an instant book room may still show as pending while your approver reviews it. For instant book rooms, Desana reserves the room while you wait, but if approval takes too long the reservation can expire and final availability is no longer guaranteed. See How does approval work for meeting room bookings? for the full picture.
Quick comparison
Instant book room | Request room | |
Workspace approval | Not needed | Workspace accepts or rejects |
Confirmation | Immediate (if no internal approval is required) | After the workspace accepts |
Button label | Accept and book | Accept and request booking |
Short notice | Often bookable same-day, within the room's lead time | Depends on the workspace responding in time |
If you still have questions about instant book and request meeting rooms, feel free to reach out to our Customer Support team via the in-app support chat or at [email protected].